Lord Huron brings the campfire to House of Blues

The band performs June 18

There's a heavy westerly vibe setting over Lord Huron's second LP Strange Trails (Iamsound): the gold rush of cavern-filling, canyon-crossing campfire folk; the squinting orange glow of an endlessly extinguishing sun; the lone traveler, spinning harmonica yarns, gaining and losing harmonizing companions as he goes. Ben Schneider's one-man band is now a quartet caravan, and his music has expanded to match, each reverb-softened country lament either blossoming into a hum-along romance or crumbling into windblown dust. The best one, "Meet Me in the Woods," does both at once, toning down the overeager Mumford & Sons and ramping up the wandering War on Drugs. Other tracks betray their secrets in their titles: forest rendezvouses plagued by frozen pines, dead men's hands clasped in yawning graves. Schneider has mastered the ebb and flow of a particular style of new-frontier songwriting, and his singing — an atmospheric wail a la My Morning Jacket's Jim James circa At Dawn — carries all the familiar comfort of reconnecting with an old friend. "Before I commence my ride/ I'm asking Lily to be my bride," he pledges on "Fool for Love," the perfect crossroads for this runaway groom, a natural-born lover and better leaver. Lucy Dacus opens. Tickets $25.